The Headstrong Historian
The chapter opens with Nwamgba recalling the nightly visits of her late husband Obierika and the vivid memories of his physical presence, his flute‑playing, and their early courtship. After several failed pregnancies, Nwamgba finally gives birth to a son, Anikwenwa, whom the earth god Ani supposedly blesses. The child grows up assisting his father with pottery, yam farming, and flute‑playing, while Obierika’s cousins Okafo and Okoye—who have long coveted Obierika’s wealth—hover menacingly. When Obierika suddenly dies, Nwamgba suspects the cousins’ medicine and confronts them; they seize his ivory tusk, yams, and goats, prompting Nwamgba to rally the Women’s Council, which temporarily drives the cousins away.
Desperate for protection, Nwamgba turns to the newly arrived white missionaries of the Holy Ghost Congregation (French, Sierra Leonean, and “normal” men) in 1885. She asks about their guns, learns the British army and the Royal Niger Company are responsible for village destructions, and hears their Christian doctrine. Later, she confides in her friend Ayaju, who tells stories of white‑men courts that dispossess locals. After witnessing the cousins consolidate land and seeing stories of white‑men injustice, Nwamgba decides to send Anikwenwa to school to learn English and defend the family’s claims.
Nwamgba takes Anikwenwa first to an Anglican mission school, but leaves when she discovers the instruction is in Igbo. She then enrolls him at the Catholic mission, where Father Shanahan baptises him “Michael” (though Nwamgba continues to call him Anikwenwa) and provides a uniform. At the mission Anikwenwa suffers harsh discipline (whipping, metal cuffs) which enrages Nwamgba; she threatens the teachers and visits weekly. Over time Anikwenwa becomes fluent in English, adopts Western clothing, and begins to distance himself from traditional customs, even refusing the igbo ima mmuo initiation.
As Anikwenwa matures, he decides to study further, first at the mission’s teacher training, then at a Lagos school, eventually becoming a catechist. He confronts his paternal cousins and successfully retrieves Obierika’s ivory tusk. He later travels to Lagos, returns, and eventually marries a Christian woman, Mgbeke (also called Agnes), whose pre‑Christian name he recalls. Their first child, a son, is baptised Peter by Father O’Donnell, though Nwamgba insists on calling him Nnamdi, believing the spirit of Obierika has returned. A second child, a girl, is baptised Grace but Nwamgba names her Afamefuna. Both grandchildren are raised in the mission’s education system; Grace eventually attends secondary school in Onicha, later studies at the University College Ibadan, becomes a historian, and changes her name to Afamefuna.
Throughout these events, Nwamgba oscillates between pride in her son’s achievements and sorrow at his cultural alienation, confronting missionary authority, the loss of traditional rites, and the erosion of her own standing. In her final days, weakened by age and illness, she refuses a Christian burial, demanding an ancestral rite. Anikwenwa pleads for a Christian funeral, but Nwamgba only wishes to see her granddaughter Afamefuna one last time. Afamefuna arrives from school, reads a colonial textbook on “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Southern Nigeria,” and Nwamgba dies shortly thereafter, having witnessed the full transformation of her family from Igbo chiefdom to Christian, Western‑educated lineage.